Bound: In the Spirit of Friendship
by Trayne
Summary: They didn't know what it meant until they were apart. A feeling that lies on a thin thread that ties them together nonetheless, out of body and often hidden by ice. YamatoxOC


This is the start of a series that focuses on a pairing from Digimon; the first story of five, to be exact. Each is supposed to have three chapters; with the first being in the point of view of the girl; the second in the boy's; and the third taking part in the actual story with a sort of poem at the end about both. Maybe I'll extend to cover other parts, but for now, this is the basic idea.

None of these is quite about romance; more about how a special bond can be formed between two people, something that surpasses the simple need to 'hook up'. I needed something I could work on in short bursts, just to show that I'm not dead. This will be updated in accordance to whatever has been revealed so far in 'Spirit, Sleeping Somewhere Cold'… I think. It's actually a spoiler for what exactly happened to cause Yamato to be so bitter towards Mitori when they reunited.

Plus, I think the bold 'Yamato x OC' pairing in the summary is a cheap way to get notice… and, uh, no one is laughing… Anyway...

This is short, and Yamato's part should be coming soon. I haven't written on impulse in a while, and I know this will probably be pretty weak; therefore, I'll be back to revise as needed. And so as not to completely ignore the Digimon, they'll be in the third chapter.

Disclaimer: You know the drill; Digimon to Toei, Mitori to me.

In the Spirit of Friendship

_You know… from the start, I was scared._

_I'd never had a friend._

_I never wanted to have something so wonderful…_

_Only to be snatched away._

_Then you came, like an angel from my nightmares._

_But when you offered your hand, I took it._

_Neither of us knew that what was ahead of us…_

_Was already nipping at our heels from the shadows._

_Perhaps my feeling of dread had been correct._

"Hey…"

Mitori's head snapped up, briefly meeting the ice blue Yamato's eyes before looking away. They'd always been too much for her in the short months they had known each other, and she had never dared to see just what was behind that chilling blizzard of indifference; masked only by a small storm of anger.

_I would come to regret that… so much more that I expected._

_How could I not want to know just what your parents had done to you?_

"You've hardly eaten a thing." A blonde brow rose in a small show of interest. "You sick or something?"

"No…" She shook her head lightly, absently pushing back her loosened hair with curled fingers. Her gaze still averted him.

_I should have looked._

_Afterwards, even if it would hurt, I would want to remember everything._

_How the sun would give you such a glow when it sat behind you._

_Your face would still be in shadows; your eyes were still cold, defiant to the warmth._

"…I don't see any apples to peel anywhere. You?"

Immediately her head snapped up at this seemingly random comment. "Wha-?"

Before she could finish her word, her mouth had been stuffed with a large clump of rice. Yamato set her pair of hashi back down onto her bento, sitting back with a rare, somewhat smug smile.

"Don't really want you getting sick, now do we?"

Mitori attempted to smile around the rice in her mouth, increasingly feeling more awkward about the moment. Surely she had something more to say to this person, someone she could call a friend.

_Someone to make me look forward to waking up,_

_Just to go to school and receive a greeting every morning before class._

_Someone to share lunches with on top of the school,_

_Somehow above everyone else and yet beneath them in our world._

_Someone to walk me home every day,_

_Because you had no one to return home to so often._

_Someone I would never have to say 'sayonara' to._

"…Mitori."

She stopped at the use of her first name, turning around to face Yamato. The sun was beginning to redden; his features were tinted in the bloody hue.

_But you were wearing black,_

_And no amount of orange or red could affect that._

He seemed casual, with hisrandoseru slung over one shoulder and his free hand in a jeans pocket, but his cool, piercing blue gaze spoke differently. Her own weaker emerald it momentarily, averted to her own bag, then to the setting. She pointed a finger to it.

"What do you make of the sun right now?" she asked, and almost didn't expect an answer. But after a brief hesitation, it came.

"Not much, really." He must have shrugged; she could easily picture him doing so. "It's signaling that another day has ended, and that night is coming."

_I still think you really meant to say something different._

"_The time of light has ended,_

_And now darkness will rule."_

_Just how would you have reacted?_

_If you knew that you were right?_

Mitori stepped up to overlook the bridge they had been walking on the sidewalk of, able to look directly into the sun as it was losing its brilliance.

"Do you think it's worth it to greet the sun every morning, even if you know it will leave?"

Nothing else mattered; not the people on the street, the cars below, the whole bustling city. There was no past, no future, no time. For a few moments, there was only the departing sun, the girl who faced it, and the boy who suddenly stood by her, one hand braced against the wall that kept them from tumbling over.

"Well, yeah, I guess. It's alright to say 'hello', because you know you'll never have say 'goodbye'. It'll be back, you can count on that. This is why you can close your eyes to the lonely night, to open them for day that will be full of life."

_You were always so much better with words. _

_You could explain things in such a poetic way ._

_It's no wonder than I asked so many questions._

_I should have said something…_

"Now, then… Let's get you home before that happens."

_I used to wonder if you ever envied me…_

_It was weird, calling a place 'home' that felt so strange._

_I didn't want to go back._

_I wanted to stay there with you._

_Wanted to believe we could face the night together._

_Maybe it was because of that…_

_That I knew I had to go._

_I had to leave before it got any more worse._

"Yeah, I'll get going now." Mitori turned away and headed down the street, neither waiting for a response nor minding the constriction in her chest. Her small hands gripped the handle of her case more tightly, to stop them from shaking.

_Who could have thought that things would continue to spiral down?_

_I guess I was more upset than I thought._

In her room, Mitori was nearly finished packing her few remaining items, trying to go through the motions as mechanically as possible. With the radio on, there was no silence that would summon her thoughts; but as she reached for it, as it was her last thing to pack, the song that started made her stop.

Her world blurred before she collapsed onto her bed, finally seized by an overwhelming sense of sorrow.

_I stopped singing._

_My voice… could never match up to yours._

_And as I would soon find out, I would have even less of a reason_

_To want to be heard._

_As a child, of course I would ask,_

"_Why do we have to go?"_

_I didn't think there was much more_

_These people that raised me could do_

_To make me question my life._

_Mother said nothing, and my… _

_Her husband replied that I shouldn't feel bad._

"_Don't worry; Ishida's son would only cause trouble."_

_Naturally I was confused._

_Later, when I was alone with mother, she explained._

_I didn't have to question my life anymore._

_I knew I shouldn't have even been born._

_Even so… when we arrived in America, it was night._

_For the longest time, I stayed awake, wanting to be among the darkness._

_I knew this was all that existed for me now._

… _I wanted to be there._

_Because I knew that you weren't one to close your eyes to the night._

_The night had a moon,_

_So that time was quiet, but not lonely._

_And when I shouldn't have lived,_

_You had brought me to life._

_I felt like a different person,_

_And wanted to forget the life that had only brought you pain._

_I wanted to be only something without a body._

_So I could freely return to the time where something mattered._

_If everything were to end, if it hadn't already,_

_I could at least and become nothing._

_The past could remain as it was,_

_And something beautiful could stay there._

_Untouched._

_I know I'll never understand how I hurt you._

_But for what it's worth, I'm glad it hurt here, too._

_It means more than words._

_The fact that I had you..._

_My friend._


End file.
